Are corporates really mortgaging the future to achieve quarterly goals?

Corporates are mortgaging the long-term future to achieve quarterly goals, right? From academics like Michael Porter to politicians like Hillary Clinton, many would have you believe this is precisely the case and that this is making the rich richer and the poor poorer. However, data suggests otherwise! Corporate profits in America have increased steadily since 1980 and short-termists were around even in the 1980s. Surely, 36 years is a long period. Moreover, according to the World Bank, in 1980 the number of people living in extreme poverty globally was around 2 billion, some 44% of the world's population, which numbered about 4.5 billion. By 2012, that figure had fallen to less than 900 million, or about 13% of the global population of 7 billion. The World Bank projected last year that for the first time the number of people living in extreme poverty around the globe was expected to have fallen below 10%. More here